Following the red-carpet premiere held Tuesday in Los Angeles, Gunn wrote on Facebook about the sense of nostalgia film evokes, and highlighted how it stands apart from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including his own Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.

“I don’t think any film of the modern era has captured the batshit crazy fun of 80’s classics like Flash Gordon and Buckaroo Banzai as well as Taika Waititi has here. I felt like I was fourteen watching a magical VHS tape that exploded into something grand,” he wrote. “It’s the most colorful of all Marvel films — I mean, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is practically sepia-tone in comparison — and it’s also the funniest.”

Gunn marveled at the performance of star Chris Hemsworth, saying he was “finally able to go full-Thor and full-Hemsworth, charming and hilarious,” and described Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie as “perfect.” He also beamed about Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk. “I didn’t think Hulk could get better that he was in the first Avengers,” he wrote, “but I think he’s captured here as well or better than he’s ever been captured in film OR comics.”

When fans responded that the humor may be too reminiscent of Joss Whedon’s take on the Avengers, Gunn responded, “I don’t think the humor in this is anything like Joss’s. It’s very specifically Taika.” Gunn also made it a point to note that he wasn’t a fan of everything Marvel Studios did but he believed that their current drive to diversify the MCU was paying dividends.

“Like Marvel comics themselves, I believe there should be many tones and colors and genres. I don’t like all of the movies being the same and I think it’s obvious with the directorial choices lately that Marvel is adding a great amount of variety to their films.”